SCEE boss wasn't sure whether Gran Turismo was 'a good idea'

"I was actually a really big Motor Toon Grand Prix fan," says Ryan.

SCEE CEO Jim Ryan has revealed that he wasn't sure whether Gran Turismo was "a good idea" when he was first shown an early version of the original game.

Talking to PlayStation Blog, Ryan revealed that he was a "really big Motor Toon Grand Prix fan" - a kart racer designed by Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi prior to his work on the sim series.

"I was over in Tokyo at whatever the development studio was called then and someone said 'Come and see Kazunori's new game'," he said, "I was used to a very fun cartoony racer and picked up this early version of GT and thought 'ahh, it could be very good and technically impressive, and the graphics are lovely, but I'm not sure if this is a good idea. Motor Toon GP was such a great game!"

Gran Turismo became an overnight hit when it launched on PS1 in December 1997. The series has sold over 70m units in the 16 years since.

"Clearly I was wrong and Kazunori was 100% right!" Ryan continued. "I don't think if he carried on with Motor Toon GP we’d be sat here celebrating 70 million units of Gran Turismo sold worldwide…"